Giant ball
Giant ball | ||||||||||||
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Giant ball from Wayanad , Western Ghats ( India ) |
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Systematics | ||||||||||||
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Scientific name | ||||||||||||
Sphaerotheriida | ||||||||||||
Brandt , 1833 |
The giant globules (Sphaerotheriida) form an order within the group of millipedes . Just like the local juice balls, the giant balls can curl up into a solid ball in case of danger. The giant balls can be rolled up to form a ball the size of a golf ball to that of a tennis ball . This ball can not be opened by predators because the edges of the second and last back plates fit exactly into one another. The adult giant globules have 13 trunk segments that are easily recognizable from the outside by the back shields. The pronotum is much smaller than the breast shield that follows. The 13th back plate has grown together with the anal shield to form a large shield plate.
features
The giant globules belong to the double-footed group and have two pairs of legs from the fifth trunk segment onwards. There are also three individual pairs of legs from the second to the fourth segment. You have 21 pairs of extremities. The last two pairs of legs of the males are modified. In contrast to the juice balls, the Sphaerotheriida have large, kidney-shaped complex eyes with numerous ocelles . Young animals, in particular, can be confused with ruffle lice , which, however, are crustaceans and cannot pull their heads into the ball. Beetle larvae, which have similarities with young giant globules, can usually be distinguished from bipedal bipeds by their three pairs of legs.
distribution
The giant pebbles are restricted to parts of the former major continent of Gondwana , mainly in India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, East and South Africa, Madagascar and Seychelles. The mostly endemic species are endangered by the increasing deforestation of the forests in their habitats.
nutrition
Giant balls feed on rotting wood and plant residues. As litter breakers, they play an important ecological role in breaking up leaves and wood and in loosening the soil, similar to the role of earthworms . For the digestion of the wood by the giant globules, it is assumed that symbiotic bacteria are necessary, similar to the termites . But since little is known about the metabolism of the giant globules, breeding and keeping of the animals have mostly failed so far.
development
Little is known about the pairing and oviposition of the giant globules, as well as about hatching and the first larval stage. So far only larvae have been found that already had six pairs of legs. After many moults, in which a new segment is created every time or every second, they develop into adults . Even after the full number of segments has been reached, further molting occurs, which is associated with an increase in size. The mating legs of the males and the sexual openings of the females continue to develop until they are sexually mature.
Systematics
The order of the Riesenkugler is the sister taxon of the Saftkugler (Glomerida). The order is divided into two families :
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Sphaerotheriidae (CL Koch, 1847)
- Sphaerotheriinae
- Sphaerotheriini
- Cyliosomatini
- Arthrosphaerinae
- Arthrosphaerini
- Zoosphaerini
- Sphaerotheriinae
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Sphaeropoeidae (Brölemann, 1913)
- Sphaeropoeinae
- Sphaeropoeini
- Prionobelini
- Indosphaerini
- Castanotheriini
- Rajasphaerinae
- Sphaeropoeinae
Individual evidence
- ↑ KM Ashwini and KR Sridhar: Breakdown of plantation residues by pill millipedes (Arthrosphaera magna) and assessment of compost quality . Current Science, Vol. 90, No. 7, April 10, 2006, pp. 954–959 Online (dead link)
literature
- Thomas Wesener, Petra Sierwald: New giant pill-millipede species from the littoral forest of Madagascar (Diplopoda, Sphaerotheriida, Zoosphaerium). Zootaxa 1097, Magnolia Press, 2005 ISBN 1-877407-48-8 ( PDF )
Web links
- Riesenkugler pages by Thomas Wesener
- Orange-sized millipedes discovered (press release of the Ruhr University Bochum from September 20, 2004)